BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE OF THE GULF AND CARIBBEAN VOLUME 6 1956 NUMBER 3 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE NO MElD FISH PSENES CYANOPHYRS CUYlER AND VALENCIENNES. I VIRGINIA A. LEGASPI Bureau of Fisheries, Manila, P. J. ABSTRACT Thirty postlarval, juvenile and adult specimens of Psenes cyanophrys Cuvier and Valenciennes, ranging from 2.5 to 66.0 mm standard length, from the Straits of Florida and the Caribbean Sea, are described and six are illustrated. Changes during development, spawning and spawning areas, and general biology are discussed. INTRODUCTION The most common nomeid fish taken in surface hauls in Florida and Caribbean waters is Psenes cyanophrys Cuvier and Valenciennes. The present work is confined to the study of a series of 30 postlarval and juvenile specimens of this species contained in the collections of the Marine Laboratory of the University of Miami. This paper is one of a series published as results of investigations carried out since 1953 by the National Geographic Society-Marine Laboratory, University of Miami, Pelagic Fish Life History program under the direction of Dr. Gilbert L. Voss. The author wishes to thank the National Geographic Society for the financial assistance which made this work possible and the Marine Laboratory for the facilities and specimens placed at her disposal. She is deeply grateful to Dr. Gilbert L. Voss for his supervision and guidance in the course of this study, and to Dr. C. P. Idyll, Dr. Hilary B. Moore, and Mr. Luis R. Rivas for their valuable criticisms and suggestions. In addition she wishes to thar k the captain and crew of the research vessel PHYSALIA for the collection of the ma- terial used in this study and Mrs. Nancy A. Voss and Mrs. Joan F. Clancey for sorting the larvae to family. Finally she wishes to lContribution No. 158 from the Marine Laboratory, University of Miami. 180 Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean [6(3) thank Dr. Leonard P. Schultz, Curator of Fishes, United States National Museum, for reading the manuscript and for his valuable criticisms and suggestions. This work was carried out under a Ful- bright Fellowship while the author was on leave of absence from the Bureau of Fisheries, Philippine Government. MATERIALS,METHODSANDTERMINOLOGY The majority of the specimens were obtained from the surface by means of dip nets and plankton nets at stations (Table 1) in the TABLE 1 STATIONDATA OF THIRTY POSTLARVALANDJUVENILESPECIMENSOF Psenes cyanophrys CUVIERANDVALENCIENNES. Station Date Time Location Depth Temp. Sal. No.oj M °C %0 specimens 10 4/ 2/54 0300 23°49'N,82°31'W 0 27.10 -- 6 74 4/11/54 1610 18°34'N,82°04'W 0 27.50 36.11 1 79 4/12/54 0100 18°04'N,82°41'W 0 26.67 36.13 1 84 4/12/54 0845 17°39'N,83°12'W 0 28.00 34.83 3 89 4/12/54 1700 17° 14'N, 83°49'W 0 27.40 36.24 10 SL14 B-O 3/19/53 2100 25°35'N,79°2YW 0 26.64 35.92 1 SL14 C-O 3/20/53 0055 25°35'N,79°25'W 0 26.64 35.92 1 SL18 B-O 7/12/53 0220 25c35'N,79°2YW 0 28.08 -- 1 SL19 B-O 8/14/53 2050 25°35'N,79°25'W 0 29.82 36.41 1 SL20 A-O 10/5/55 0430 10 mi. E. of Miami 0 28.80 -- I c NG32-398/15/51 0810 26?08'N,79 '56'W 0 ----- 2 Caribbean Sea, off Grand Cayman, and in the Straits of Florida (Figure 1) during an oceanographic survey of the area by the Marine Laboratory vessel PHYSALIAin connection with the Laboratory's Tropical Oceanography contract with the Office of Naval Research. The remaining material was taken from two routine stations in the Florida Current off Miami by the same vessel in the course of the fish larvae work and in conjunction with an earlier plankton investi- gation. The location occupied as the first routine station designated NG was about ten miles east of the Miami sea buoy on the west side of the Florida Current (25°53' to 26°08'N, 79°56'W) where the depth is over 100 fathoms. The other routine station designated SL was located on the east side of the Florida Current where there is an average depth of 740 meters. A description of the nets, number of hauls at each station, the hydrographic instruments used, and the methods of handling the collections has been given by N. Voss (1954). Complete data for 1956] Legaspi: Lite History of Psenes 181 87 84 81- 79 27 27 24 24 21 18 •• 15 15 I ~ . ~- -~- --- 94 81 79- 87 - FIGURE 1. Distribution map of Ps~nes cyanophrys Cuvier and Valenciennes studied in this work. the stations in the lower Straits of Florida and the Caribbean Sea have been given by Hela et al (1955), and for the NG stations by Miller et al (1953). 182 Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean [6(3) The terms LARVA, PROLARVA, POSTLARVA and JUVE- NILE are used as defined by Hubbs (1943). All illustrations are by the author. MEASUREMENTS, PROPORTIONS AND COUNTS The smaller specimens, up to 9.4 mm, were measured with a micrometer eyepiece and the larger ones with a pair of dividers. Unless destroyed, the left side was used to make the counts and the lateral measurements. Total length, which has no apparent value in this study, was not taken. The definitions of measurements herein used were adapted from Voss (1954) all of which suited the present specimens. STANDARD LENGTH, in smaller specimens before the appearance of the uro- style, is measured from the tip of the snout to the tip of the vertebral column. In those specimens in which the urostyle is already formed, the measurement is to the middle of the caudal base. The DEPTH is measured at the origin of the pelvic fin. The HEAD is measured from the tip of the snout to the posterior edge of the membranous opercle, exclusive of projecting spines. The SNOUT is measured from the tip of the upper jaw to the anterior edge of the bony orbit. The ORBIT refers to the greatest horizontal diameter of the bony orbit, inside measurements. All measurements are given in millimeters. Proportions, or indices are expressed as a percentage of the standard length, but the snout length and orbit diameter are also expressed as percentages of the head length. Only fully formed spines and soft rays are included in the counts. TAXONOMY AND DISTRIBUTION Psenes cyanophrys Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1833 Figures 2 A-C; 3 D-F. JUVENILE SYNONYMY. Psenes cyanophrys Cuvier and Valenciennes. Gunther, 1889: 12-13 (compares a small series of P. cyanophrys with other species of Psenes described by Cuvier and Valenciennes, 25.5-76.0 mm total length). Norman, 1927:350 (30.0 mm specimen, 3°46'00"N, 16°49'00"W). Weber, 1913: 152 (describes distribution of 10 speci- mens of P. cyanophrys, 16.0-85.0 mm from Celebes and Banda Seas). Longley and Hildebrand, 1941 :75 (150 specimens up to 120 mm picked up from wastes of a bird rookery in Tortugas, Florida). The genus Psenes has been referred to several families by different authors and the exact taxonomic position of the genus is not clear even now. In confusion of certain overlapping characters, various 19561 Legaspi: Life History of Psenes 183 authors have included the group in the families Carangidae, Stroma- teidae and Nomeidae. The genus Psenes was first described by Cuvier and Valenciennes (1833) and included five species: P. guamensis, P. javanicus, P. aur- atus, P. leucurus, and P. cyanophrys. The last was described from a single specimen, 5 inches long, from New Ireland, off northeast New Guinea. LUtkcn (1880) gave an account of young stages, not exceeding 87.0 mm, of P. cyanophrys. Together with Psenes maculatus, he recognized them as forms well distributed in the Atlantic Ocean. Day (1888), in his work on the fishes of India, Ceylon and Burma, described two species of Psenes with the carangids: P. indicus and P. javanicus. Jordan and Evermann (1896), Weber (1913) and de Beaufort and Chapman (1951) have recognized the latter as a synonym of P. cyanophrys. GUnther (1889), in his studies of the pelagic fish collection made by the CHALLENGER, through an examination of a long series of specimens, found that the several species of Psenes described pre- viously by Cuvier and Valenciennes (1833) were actually Psenes cyanophrys whose distribution is pelagic in the tropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. He listed a new species, P. arafurensis, and along with other occurring nomeids he included them in the family Nomeidae. Goode and Bean (1895) recorded two species of Psenes, but neither of them was P. cyanophrys. They were collected below 400 fathoms by the ALBATROSS at 32°-3rN, 73°-76°W, and placed in the family Nomeidae. Jordan and Gilbert (1882) according to Baldwin (1954, un- published) stated that the Nomeidae contains five genera and ten species. They separated it from the carangids because of the increased number of vertebrae, and grouped it, because of the teeth in the pharynx, with the family Stromateidae. The family Nomeidae, according to Jordan and Evermann (1896), has 6 to 8 genera and about 15 species, mostly of the open seas, composed of small fishes rarely used as food. They added P. regulus Poey to their list of Psenes.